Page 38 of Legal Attraction

She paused a moment and then breathed out, “I’m sorry. I know you’re worried and I’m not making things easier.”

Her mother pitched in. “Just come home. Why can’t you come home? I’m sure we can work out some remote agreement with your boss.” Her mother’s voice was high pitched, only a couple breaths away from a total freak out. Coral needed to get off the phone.

“I will if there is a real and present threat.” Coral nodded to herself. “Until then, I’m likely as safe here as I would be anywhere, right?”

Her father grunted.

“I look forward to meeting the new team. Thank you for understanding. This means so much to me.” Her voice caught. “I hope we can make this work. I really will be careful. I promise.”

“We love you dear. We know this job means a lot to you. But it doesn’t mean more than your life. Just remember that and come home the first time things get suspicious.” Her mother’s tone had mellowed.

“Thanks Mom. I really will. The safe house I already have is top of the line. I’m safer there than anywhere. And Lucan said there are no indications that people have flown across the ocean. I don’t think this area is even in the radar of these terrorists.”

“We just never know, nor can they tell why certain royals are targeted over others. Our nation has been spared. But that could mean we’re next. We don’t know.”

“Lucan is an expert. He will keep us informed, and my team here will be a great help. I really will bring myself home if things escalate here.”

“Well, that’s good to hear honey. You have a good night. And get yourself home.”

“I will, thank you.”

As soon as her mother hung up and both her parents were no longer in her ear, she fell to a chair in her room and rest her head in her hands. “This is kind of big.”

“What is?” Rand stood in the doorway, tall and more handsome than he should be when she didn’t want to talk to him yet.

“Oh, I just had a call from my parents. They’re checking in about my security.” For some reason, she didn’t want Rand to know about the threat and the new intel regarding the terrorists at The Palisades. He had every right to know. He was there. But she didn’t want to talk about it, not with him.

“Is everything alright?”

She breathed in, suddenly having a hard time keeping a neutral expression. Everything was not alright and her body was reacting as if with the sight of Rand, it just realized how bad things were. She hid her shaking hands. “Yeah, it’s fine. I think I’m tired though. I know there’s a group going to happy hour and I should probably support the Firm’s activities and all that, but I think what I really need, is my quiet home and cozy couch.” With heart nearly pounding out through her throat, she fought to hide every indication that she was just about to panic.

“You’ve had quite a day. I don’t blame you at all. Tonight wasn’t planned by the firm. But it would be good to spend time with the other new hires. The more allies you have, the more friendships you make, the better.”

Slight irritation helped her focus. “We should all be friends. There are only four of us.”

“Unless they become your competition.”

She sighed. This was not the conversation she needed at the moment. “Well, I’ll worry about that tomorrow.” Her shoulder bag was heavy with files she planned to read before bed. “Have a good night. Tell them all hello from me.”

Not only was she not in any way able to function at a social thing tonight, she didn’t want to miss the zoom call. Neither of which she wanted to tell Rand. “Good night.” She called again over her shoulder.

His eyes followed her all the way to the corner. She didn’t need to turn around to feel his attention.

She had about three hours to kill before she would get on the zoom call. That call would help her feel better, at least put some actionable things to do about her situation instead of just waiting around for something bad to happen, which is what her security team was encouraging. She pulled out her files on Muskanza. She could at least get some research in. Who were these people? Why was there so much secrecy surrounding their cases? On the surface, they looked very mellow, harmless.

But the more she dug in, the more things just simply didn’t add up. They had a highly sophisticated money train for one. She was determined to figure that out. She kept digging around and right before the start of the meeting, found a file referencing a woman. There was a snapshot of her, which Coral found odd, and no name. And she looked familiar.

Several things were not matching up in the files she had. She found the email of this client and opened up her inbox. “I’m a new attorney on your case. Would you be free for lunch to discuss the details of our next project?”

Nothing like going straight to the source. She would know a lot by looking into their face. Her calendar dinged. Time to enter the video conference. Hopefully she’d find some answers.

ChapterSixteen

Something was up with Coral. And Lucan had called for a zoom meeting that night. Coral had said nothing about the meeting. Either Coral didn’t know or she was madder at him than he realized. His feet wanted to follow her. He had to physically stop them from going down the same hallway. Instead, he turned and went the opposite direction, where the others were gathering to catch dinner and drinks. It was going to be a long couple hours.

Finally, after cutting out of drinks early, Rand was home, a sweatshirt pulled over his t-shirt, his laptop open, opening a video conference call. When they let him in, a good group was already gathered and people were talking. He recognized Nico’s voice. He scrolled through the faces. Everyone at The Palisades and a lot of men who looked remotely related to Nico. Coral. She had her hair in a bun on top of her head. So he and Coral had both known about this meeting and said nothing to each other.

A private message dinged. “You knew and didn’t say anything.”

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